


Do villains deserve happy endings?

by thenobleevils44



Series: The She-Ra Angst Collection [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fate & Destiny, Heavy Angst, Internal Conflict, Major Character Injury, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, Regret, Sad Ending, Self-Hatred, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26000662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenobleevils44/pseuds/thenobleevils44
Summary: How funny, I asked Entrapta a question yesterday:'Do villains deserve happy endings?'and she simply responded;'Not in fairytales.'
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: The She-Ra Angst Collection [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887181
Comments: 9
Kudos: 118





	Do villains deserve happy endings?

Catra sat perched underneath the giant statue of She-Ra which Glimmer and the rest of the princesses had built in her honour after she managed to defeat Horde Prime (with her help of course). 

The statue was glorious; it had been built from solid gold and covered with fine diamonds and other gems and had been draped with the most expensive jewellery Etheria had to offer. It had been built as a reminder to all of Brightmoon's citizens of their saviour who had given them their freedom back from the Horde. 

However, the statue was also a painfully sharp reminder to Catra of all the countless awful atrocities she had committed in spite of the rebellion (now her self-proclaimed friends) and how many people she had harmed or even killed over the years without even a second thought about them. 

Adora had been a good soldier once; loyal to the Horde and hard working. But she had no real blood on her hands. She left and became Etheria's heroine and saved the lives of thousands of innocent citizens. She earned her redemption and the glory of having her own wonderfully made statue.

Catra however had the blood of thousands clinging onto her fur and (now far too short for her own liking) hair. Yet she was allowed to stay in Brightmoon as if she were a guest of honour because of her role in saving the Kingdom. 

The shade which the golden statue granted to her may have relieved her overly warm body from Etheria's glaring sun but it also set her already wrecked mind into an inferno of guilt which was fueled even further by her own agony. 

A comment Mermista had offhandedly given her during their most recent meeting shot through her guilt ridden head: 

"You don't deserve the love Adora gives you."

Despite her own weak protests against the notion and her half-hearted fight with the sarcastic sea princess which resulted in Adora and Sea Hawk pulling them apart from each other, a part of Catra couldn't help but feel like Mermista had been right.

She had already dragged Adora down into hell and probably would have continued too drag her in deeper if it hadn't been for Double Trouble's surprising betrayal or Horde Prime's terribly timed arrival. 

Her sympathy towards Glimmer had been earnest and helping her escape from the ship was supposed to be her final weak grasp for some kind of personal redemption - but Catra had never expected Adora to come and save her. 

She was supposed to die on that ship and everyone other than Adora's stubborn self knew it. 

But instead she found herself sitting underneath a statue of her girlfriend's heroic persona by herself while the rest of Etheria partied and danced in Queen Glimmer - who she still insisted on calling sparkles - castle. 

This was the last party they'd have before her kingdom's campaign to rebuild Brightmoon would eventually have to begin and Catra's torn heart would yet again be shattered as the memories of her recent life as the ruthless 'Force Captain Catra' would inevitably come flooding back to her. 

She knew that she didn't deserve to be redeemed from her bloodied distant past no matter what Adora told her. So, she refused to attend Sparkle's glamorous parties with Adora no matter how much she begged her to attend them with her. 

She ate her breakfast, lunch and dinner on her own within her room and tried to avoid Adora as much as she possibly could without making her suspicious unfortunately which wasn't as often as Catra would liked. Adora was practically attached to her hip since they had somehow saved Etheria together through 'the power of their love.' 

She had a bittersweet relationship with the four lettered word: love had broken her to the point she wanted nothing more to destroy the world and almost had done with Entrapta's portal. But her love for the stupid blonde who had saved her from Horde Prime's control had also helped to save the world. 

'Love - I don't deserve love. I deserved to die back on Horde Prime's ship. Yet here I am, alive and accepted into a world which I don't belong in.' 

A loud sigh and the faint rattle of a familiar exoskeleton snapped Catra out of her needle covered trail of thought. 

Before she could even stop herself, a loud threatening hiss escaped her mouth. Her tail fluffed up due to the mixture of light fear and deep anger she felt upon seeing who the unexpected noise had came from. Her fiercely defensive reaction resulted in the disgruntled looking Hordak glancing up from where his blood red eyes had been transfixed onto the neatly paved ground beneath his feet. 

After spotting Catra, his arms raised to cover his chest defensively in case she attacked him again - their previous catastrophic fight was still fresh in his mind. 

They both stood underneath the looming shade of the golden statue - with their arms raised high and vicious looks plastered over their faces. 

Yet neither of them made the first move to initiate a fight. 

Catra couldn't help but notice how tired the former warlord looked. The bags underneath his eyes looked even more prominent than they had ever done before especially in contrast with his new bright white exoskeleton suit which Entrapta had clearly enhanced in her spare time. 

He looked as tired as Catra felt on the inside. 

Hesitantly, Catra lowered her own arms and her tail lowered down with them, but it still flicked around slightly in suspicion, and called across to the former leader of the Horde.

"Did you get tired of partying with the princesses as well, huh?" 

Hordak's arms lowered upon realising Catra didn't want to attack him. His voice was as fierce as it had ever been, but it didn't carry any malice with it now.

"I didn't party with them to begin with Force Captain - Ah. I meant to say 'Catra'. I was resting in my room but the noise from the party became overbearing. Entrapta insisted that I stayed there with her but I needed some space. I still don't feel like I belong here." 

Catra knew the old Etherain saying about curiosity killing the cat but still felt enticed by Hordak's unexpected openness with her. Maybe they had more in common than she had first anticipated. 

She walked forward towards her former boss, causing him to flinch at her unexpected movement, and sat down beside him - gesturing for him to sit down with her in the statue's dark, cool shade. 

"I don't think I belong here either. Adora keeps saying that she forgives me, but I can't forgive myself. I regret some of the things I did to her, but in all honesty I don't regret destroying entire towns or have any regrets over the people I have hurt as a Horde soldier. It's what I was raised to do. My fate was to be the big bad villain but my destiny was ruined by a magical sword and the very rebellion which now rules over Etheria. In all honesty I don't even know who I am anymore." 

Tears burned Catra's eyes from the inside as she fought her own internal battle to keep them from falling infront of Hordak however it was obvious that she was fighting another losing battle. She allowed the tears to fall freely as she glanced over at the quiet man who sat cross-legged beside her.

Catra watched as Hordak's tense body loosened perhaps due to his understanding of her present situation. His gruff voice broke the painful silence between them.

"How funny, I asked Entrapta a question yesterday: 'Do villains deserve happy endings?' and she simply responded; 'Not in fairytales.' So, according to her logic, we don't deserve redemption or to live happily in this kingdom with the rebels. This world has been given a fairytale ending, so it's basically obvious to everyone but our loved ones that we don't deserve to exist within this idealic ending."

The tears streamed down Catra's face even heavier than they had done before, Hordak had told her what she had known all along but didn't have the courage to admit. Her own voice cracked as she spoke the horrible truth outloud to herself more than Hordak.

"We both have no purpose in this world's happy ending because we both don't belong here. I don't deserve the shade she gives me both here or in that castle. I should have died on Horde Prime's ship but she broke the script to play the bold fearless hero." 

Hordak grimly nodded as a solitary tear fell down his own pale face. His voice pierced through Catra like thorns going through her skin when picking flowers from a rose bush. 

"Perhaps it's best if we don't return to the party." 

Catra forced herself to meet his blood red eyes through the blurriness of her own burning tears.

"What do you mean by that Hordak?"

"We could both - let's say 'finish the story' for them. Catra, there's no way Adora or Entrapta will ever let us go. The only way we can get rid of this heartbreaking feeling is if we correct our fates. We both should have died on Horde Prime's ship and we've lived longer than we should have. Perhaps it's best if we end the story here, underneath this lovely shade that we both don't deserve." 

Catra felt her blood freeze within her weak, bruised body. She had thought about ending her own story for years, she had even told Glimmer to kill her back in the Fright Zone but she didn't have the guts to follow through with it. 

She didn't know if she had felt relieved by her now sparkly friend's own weakness or frustrated by it.

Ending the story wasn't an unfamiliar thought for her but it was under different circumstances now. 

She has Adora. 

She loves Adora.

But Hordak had a good point - love blinds people to the truth. Mermista and the other princesses had made it perfectly clear to her that she didn't belong here in this fairytale world - the world she and Hordak had tried so desperately to conquer and destroy. 

How many people had they murdered together under the Horde's dirty blood red banner?

The statue's shade severed through her body now - the heat and the cold caused her fragile bones to ache and her mind to buzz with unkind words and unwanted memories as Hordak simply watched her. 

Catra let out a pained, gurgled laugh at his emotionless expression. At least Hordak had the ability to admit he was broken beyond repair, she couldn't even do that. 

Her eyes flicked down to the knife his pale hands were grasping onto as she wondered where it had suddenly come from. 

If he had come down here to kill her he would have done it by now, would he have not? 

The puzzle pieces came together in her shattered mind as she realised what he had come down here to do. It all made sense to her now. Hordak had come here to end his own story under the shade he didn't deserve and she just happened to be here as he decided to do it.

Catra took in a deep breath of Etheria's now clean air - air which stung the back of her throat more than the dirty smog at the Fright Zone had done - as she settled on the decision she had now made. 

"Now is the only chance we'll have to spend time alone together. The princesses don't trust former Horde members alone together yet. We have to do this now if we're going to commit to this. It's time Hordak. Let's fix fate and let this world have its happy ending." 

Hordak's emotionless face twisted into a pained but genuine smile. He grasped Catra's wrist and levelled it with his own, raising the knife in his other hand towards them. He met Catra's tear filled eyes and nodded slightly as his voice broke through the nervous silence between them.

"Catra, you were a great Force Captain. It was an honour serving with you - despite our losses I count our final act of defiance as a great service towards the Horde. I'm glad I don't have to do this alone." 

With a sudden swipe of his wrist, the blade swept across Catra's exposed wrist first before dashing across his own - going across the only weak spot in his new exoskeleton. 

The cut Hordak made was deep - and thankfully it would be fatal. 

The agony Catra felt, in a twisted way, was a huge relief. She felt her exposed back fall down against the cool, shaded ground below her as the bitter sting of her wound took over her body - distracting her from any thoughts or guilt she had felt before. 

Her story was finally ending, and Hordak's story was ending along with hers.

With the exception of the pained grunts from the man now lying beside her, her attention focused up at the perfect looking statue of her heroic girlfriend who she knew that she didn't deserve. It looked even better from this angle - the sun like caused it to sparkle in the sun and reflect the unnatural looking cloudless sky off it. 

It felt right for her last moments alive to be spent admiring Etheria's heroic saviour's beauty. 

Catra acceptingly let the spots of blackness take over her vision - letting them black out the golden reflection of the wonderful statue which shaded her bleeding body from the harsh glare of the sun. 

She felt Hordak's blood covered hand grasp out at her own and she let him take it - not minding the sharp pain the contact caused her - his anguished breaths and sharp gasps signalled to her that they both had little time left before their stories ended. 

Hordak left first, the weakened pulse in his wrist stopped beating but Catra didn't stop holding his limp hand. 

They were both in this together now. 

Her time would come shortly - her own breathes became shallower and her own arm went numb due to the rapid blood loss she was suffering from.

This was it: her story was finally ending.

So, after taking one last glance at Adora's statue, Catra closed her tired eyes and let fate catch up with her. 

Etheria woke up to their saviour's anguished screams the next morning - while their genius inventor sobbed beside her - as she desperately clutched onto Catra's lifeless body underneath her own statue's bitterly cold shade.

**Author's Note:**

> Because why have a happy ending when you can have a super realistic and grim one, am I right?


End file.
